How Do You Measure Leads?
October 21, 2009 by Emma Sorensen
A recent article by Simon Baker looked at the contentious issue of leads, and argued that what portals should be talking about is the number of leads they generate for the advertiser, rather than web traffic. So how can portals do this?
propertyportalwatch.com spoke to the leading portal in The Netherlands, funda.nl, and asked them how they measured their leads.
funda.nl has just launched a new system for the agents, which aims to give them the inside info about the leads that are generated for them by the portal. There are three key elements to the new system:
1. Visitors cannot see the telephone number of the agent. Each listing has a contact-block on every page (containing description page, photo page, overview page, etc). In that block the visitor sees the word “telefoon” (telephone) but no number, and needs to click on this word to get the phone number. This enables funda.nl to measure telephone leads to agents.
2. funda.nl also does what most portals can already do, and measures the number of emails sent to advertising agents.
3. In addition, funda.nl has introduced a “download brochure” function, where agents can opt to have users fill in their e-mail address and/or telephone number before being able to download a brochure. This means agents can then follow up leads from people who have downloaded the brochure.
All measurements are provided as part of the portal’s backoffice system, fundadesk.nl, where agents can get an overview of all contact statistics for each advertised property and export the data to Excel (and other CRM software).
Contact statistics provided to agents through fundadesk.nl include:
- number of clicks on telephone
- number of clicks on email
- number of emails sent
- number of downloads of brochure
- when available: contact information
We’d like to know more – what does your portal do to measure and track leads? And do you think agree that it is the most important measure?
Visit propertyportalwatch.com’s homepage to take our latest poll: What is the most important measure for a property portal? You can also have your say below, or join our forum.
And you can read Simon Baker’s article, Its All About The Leads, here.
- It’s All About the Leads
Property portals around the world are famous for talking up their numbers. Almost every week we receive press releases claiming one of two things – a portal is bigger or faster than everyone else in their market. The bigger claim is almost always followed by a Unique Browser, page view or visitor number while the faster claim is followed by some percentage growth between two arbitrary dates. This approach is reminiscent of newspapers touting circulation and readership. While these are interesting, they are not that relevant outside of the industry and probably not that relevant to the people that matter most, the advertiser. They are measuring the inputs and not the outputs. What portals should be talking about is the number of leads they generate for the advertiser. This is the true measure of effectiveness. The problem is most portal sites just don’t know how many leads they really generate. Here is how some sites are approaching the problem....
- Poll Results: Leads, Not Uniques
After discussing the importance of lead measurement recently, propertyportalwatch.com asked readers what they see as the most important measure for a property portal. The results are now in, and with just under 100 responses, we found an overwhelming number of readers – 67 percent in fact – think the number of leads generated by a property portal is its most important measure....
- casa.sapo.pt Brings In Record Leads
Portuguese property portal casa.sapo.pt has set what it says is a new record, with 51,500 leads generated in September....
- zillow.com Now Charging for Lender Leads
zillow.com, the US based real estate marketplace, has changed the pricing model in its mortgage marketplace, introducing “market-based pricing” for customer-initiated contacts. ...
- funda.nl Expands Audience and Listings
Dutch property portal funda.nl has revealed that it will make its listings accessible via local eBay website marktplaats.nl. The alliance will create the biggest platform for housing sales in the Netherlands....
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I see this issue very much paralleling the issue of online advertising.
In the early days of the web – it was all about eyeballs! – as systems of tracking evolved so the advertising model was charged with accountability of performance as CPC began to be the measure rather than CPM.
This logic works as a double edge sword as brand advertising online is a key part of brand marketing and measuring click thru’s is not the only judgment.
Recently as a measure of online advertising maturity we are seeing a better balance between value of impressions matched to click thru’s.
So when it come to real estate whilst agents want leads – that is their business; a portal has this 2-sided business dilemma. If we force users to jump through hoops to get contact details as Funda is proposing we are in danger of frustrating our users – just so we can justify our role to agents.
A better approach is that used by Rightmove were unique telephone numbers are allocated to each agent so true performance can be measured without upsetting users.
In my view, the value of a portal is the most comprehensive presentation of relevant content on a listing and it’s environment – leaving the buyer to make their own judgment as to when and how they make contact with the selling agent through email, phone, open home or whatever means. Within that, performance of views per listing is a key component as it is in the capability of a website whereas sending emails is not.
I agree with Simon Baker that leads are the true measure of a portal’s effectiveness.
The best portals quickly connect people with matching search results via the fewest possible keystrokes. People want to see accurate, up-to-date, detailed property information online. They want it fast and they don’t want the hassle of registering.
Why pay for advertising when you can pay for results? At RentLinx, property managers pay for leads (i.e. phone calls and emails from interested renters) – not advertising. Property managers list once at RentLinx.com and we post their ads on multiple websites. If we don’t perform, we don’t get paid.
RentLinx assigns a unique tracking toll-free phone number to each listing for each of the multiple websites in The RentLinx Network. When someone calls, it immediately rings through to the property while our computer logs the call. The caller ID shows the caller’s phone number (not the toll free tracking #). We do this very cost effectively (in the US). We also assign unique tracking email addresses (the easy part). Property managers login to RentLinx to view every phone call and email lead they received, including all the renter’s contact information and the portal that generated the lead.